


Creature of the Night

by darkesky



Series: picking up the pieces [10]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Eden Club (Detroit: Become Human), F/M, Healing, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 02:52:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16823668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkesky/pseuds/darkesky
Summary: One last time, he gazes at areas no man has the right to. North turns away frantically and wraps her arms around her breasts, hating the fact she can’t be violent. Hating the fact she always fought for everything in the revolution, but North can’t even stand her own against one man. “I’m going, I’m going. But you need to think about your life and who you should be thankful for… And how you should help them.”---Floyd Mills comes with an offer





	Creature of the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Pretty strong warnings here considering it heavily focuses on North's past and her feelings ABOUT said past. I just wanted to expand on her character a little more and dive into the walls she forces up.

Before she even checks the visitor log, she just  _ senses  _ his presence. He sweeps in with a cold wind racing past him. Every footstep rattles the ground like a giant coming down to Earth. If she breathes too deeply, she can  _ smell  _ the sweat and the grime and the unmentionable substances.

None of the others notice. Josh continues prattling on with Simon, and Simon continues to give his weak-ass answers. It’s obvious the blond isn’t prepared to be bombarded with scientific facts and figures, but Josh needs some kind of friend who’s willing to be taught and she sure as hell won’t be it. Markus watches their exchange with a smile toying with his lips, unwilling to break it up. Instead, he just soaks in the warmth of their happiness.

North can’t  _ do  _ that.

Somehow, she manages to find her voice. She pushes past them all and slams her shoulder against Markus’s on the way out. After all, if they just think she’s in some fucking funk, they’ll leave her alone. They won’t follow her to the hell she  _ has  _ to enter.

As she rides the elevator down to the main floor, North leans back against the walls and collects her breath. Sinking to her knees, she covers her face with her hands. She can  _ do  _ this. Because if anyone else has to fucking do this, she might ride this elevator to the top and stand on the edge.

When the doors to the elevator slide open, North’s back on her feet, and a scowl writes itself across her face.

His voice sounds just as slimy as ever, and it crawls down her spine. North resists the urge to shudder. Standing behind the statue, partially obscured by the model of a human they’ve yet to get rid of, she watches him tap idly against one of the many tablets they’ve set up at the entrance of the tower. 

Josh invented these  _ stations  _ to keep everyone from wasting time. When androids first arrive, they tap code into the tablets. They specify what they need from Jericho leadership. Whether it’s housing or rehabilitation, they just type it in and the algorithm handles the rest.

Curling her hands into fists, her nails bite crescents into the fragile skin of her palm. She takes a deep breath and steps out from where she hid. “What the  _ fuck  _ are you doing here? You’re not welcome.”

“I thought everyone with an android problem was allowed,” he lazily drawls. For the first time, she notes the cigarette dangling in his fingers. He flicks it onto the ground, and her blood boils beneath her skin. He stinks the whole tower with his filth despite only being here for mere  _ minutes. _

North shakes her head. “Don’t. Don’t you fucking dare try and get help here. You’re not  _ wanted.” _

“You have a walk-in policy. Funny…” The man laughs lightly, staring her in the eye. He doesn’t back down while her whole body vibrates from the effort of not flinching away. “The Eden Club used to have the same policy.”

“Get the fuck out!” she shrieks, her temper racing away before she can grab it. North stalks forward and goes to shove him. All the man does is raise his hands and dare her to do it. And if she does, he can report them for aggression and get  _ all  _ of Jericho in trouble. Goddamnit.

Floyd Mills waits until she retreats, hands falling limply to her side. The former owner of the Eden Club laughs. “You know they passed a new sort of law. Any crimes committed by androids before or on November 12th were pardoned. Any crimes committed  _ against  _ androids before or on November 12th were pardoned. I broke no laws with the Eden Club.”

“That’s insane.” North hates the  _ Pardoning Act.  _ Markus and the president communicated to make sure it would come into effect, and Warren announced it soon after the end of the revolution. Within  _ three  _ days actually.

Shaking his head, he lifts an eyebrow and stares down at her. “Is it? You murdered a man when you ran off. More often than that, the sentences for murder extend longer than prostitution.”

“Not fucking fair.” The words fall weakly out of her mouth, and she just sounds like a little kid arguing with an adult. Every time she  _ speaks,  _ he somehow sends her back to the same place. Back to being a  _ Traci  _ trapped in a glass cage, trying to look sexy and sultry to win the affections of anyone passing by.

Floyd clears his throat before casting aside the tablet. “But regardless, it appears I got a member of Jericho down to help me. Can we go to a private room to discuss business?”

“I would  _ never  _ go to a private room with you,” she spits. It just sounds and feels  _ dirty.  _ The thought of being alone with someone from the Eden Club means she’ll lose some dignity, some pride,  _ something else  _ she used to have. It just keeps stealing from her no matter how far she goes.

The man laughs and shakes his head. “This isn’t something you want to discuss in person, Traci-”

“It’s North.”

“It’s a business deal,” Floyd starts. 

She shakes her head, and she casts her eyes back up to the floor directly above them. While she attempted to keep any of them from following her, she somehow makes eye contact with Simon. The blond worries his lip between his teeth and gazes down at the person she speaks with. 

He requests a conversation silently, begging to get into her thoughts. North venomously denies it before returning her attention back to Floyd Mills. If she stays here, one of them will come down and rescue her… And she doesn’t want to be a damsel in distress. She can slay her own fucking dragons.

“Fine,” North starts. She stomps forward, each click of her steel-toed boots resounding through the building. She’s tougher now. Tougher than an android who had no choice but to obey. Tougher than Floyd Mills’s  _ favored  _ Traci android. Everyone knew he liked her best.

Everyone knew where he touched her back at the Eden Club. Everyone knew how he pressed the weight of his hands on her hips, how he pinned her to the spot, how he  _ begged  _ her to scream. And when North screamed, it was never out of pleasure. It ripped out of her and broke her programming as it rebounded off the red walls of her programming.

She didn’t want to strangle that guy, but she  _ couldn’t  _ go back to the Eden Club. She couldn’t go back to Floyd Mills’s watchful gaze and hungry looks. 

Even the thought of going into a private room with him makes her heart hammer. But if she allows herself to think about that, she’ll be just as weak as before. She has to be better. She just  _ has to be. _

\---

The second he proposes it, North feels the sickly taste of bile tracing up her throat. When androids puke, all they can bring up is thirium though. If she puked right here, right now, she’ll splatter the surface of the table with blue blood. The rest of them would figure out what happened. 

Markus knows she strangled someone. He doesn’t know how many times she had sex. He doesn’t know how many times she got  _ bought.  _ How fucked up is that? It took her  _ so many times  _ to deviate. One emotional trauma should have encouraged her to escape and become her own person. Yet… It  _ didn’t.  _ And she suffered through their dirty skin and their filthy words.

If he knew, he’d leave and never look back. 

Floyd Mills sits on the opposite side of the table, leering at her. “Just consider this, Trace. Prostitution may be illegal but phone-sex hotlines aren’t. Filming pornography isn’t. Strip clubs aren’t. I still have  _ many  _ Tracis willing to work in this industry. However, if I want to start a business, I must have three signatures from the official leadership of Jericho.”

“I’m not on the official leadership team anymore. And I can guarantee they won’t,” she growls. Why would they ever want to go back into business with  _ Floyd Mills?  _ Surely, they remember what he did to them? She gets to her feet and gets ready to leave, unwilling to hear the rest of the deal, when he starts clearing his throat and gain her attention again.

He smiles sickly sweet at her. “But you can ask Markus. You  _ are  _ close to the leader of the revolution, aren’t you? You broadcasted that, if I may say so,  _ steamy  _ kiss to the masses. I couldn’t help watching it on repeat.”

“No…” The idea of his eyes on the kiss suddenly soils the memory of it. Last time, she didn’t even think about it. She just  _ kissed  _ Markus, and the passion managed to suspend the idea of death. If she had to die, she wanted to die in the arms of someone she loved. 

Floyd Mills, noticing her hand on the doorknob, presses onwards. He gets to his feet and stands beside her, his breath hot on her neck. “Look where you are now! Face of the revolution because what? You  _ won over a man?  _ Everything you’ve become is because I taught you the wiles of your body. It’s because of me and my property. No matter how far you go, you’ll always be one of my Tracis.”

She lunges back from him, the movement sloppy. She sends a chair cascading to the ground, and North scrubs a hand through her hair. “Shut up. Shut the fuck  _ up!” _

“There is your chance to make a difference for your sisters,” he says, voice eerily calm. He still keeps his eyes trained on her, mentally undressing her. 

North grabs her coat and pulls it shut tightly. Wildly, she starts grasping wildly for anything. Ever since they’ve won rights, though, North couldn’t carry a gun on her. And applying for a permit would pose a violent outlook, so Markus vetoed it. She’s defenseless against him, and all he can throw at her are words. Even if she didn’t shoot him, she’d at least get the comfort of being  _ able  _ to.

All she has are her fists, and she tries to suppress the energy convulsing through her body by balling her hands once more. “I’m not putting them through  _ hell,  _ so you can make a quick buck.”

“A hell of their own making.” Floyd cocks his head and gives her a nasty smile, leaning against the only exit to the room. “Androids are free to choose what they want to do, right? Would you really restrict their freedom based on your beliefs? Beliefs that, if I may, I instilled in you?”

“Fuck you.” The words burst out, and North combs her hands through her hair. 

Floyd nods. “That’s what you’re good at, right?  _ Fucking?  _ Tell me, did you get into your leader’s pants to get this far? Do you really think you have that revolutionary of ideas? Or does he keep you around as a sex toy?”

“Get the  _ fuck  _ out of my home before you meet the same fate as your clients,” she growls out, ignoring the furious blue blush mounting in her ears, her cheeks. She’s so sick of feeling weak and  _ small.  _

He lazily holds his hands up in mock-surrender. One last time, he gazes at areas no man has the right to. North turns away frantically and wraps her arms around her breasts,  _ hating  _ the fact she can’t be violent. Hating the fact she always fought for everything in the revolution, but North can’t even stand her own against one man. “I’m going, I’m going. But you need to think about your life and who you should be thankful for… And how you should help them.”

\---

_ A hand slaps over her waist and pulls her closer. His breath billows on the back of her neck, searching and seeking. Slowly, he starts shifting until it’s impossible to tell where she ends and he begins. He presses his crotch into her and wraps his legs against hers. _

_ The morning after, she always dreaded the most. Sex is rough and harsh and painful. It’s an act of violence, not an act of love or passion. But the morning after brought gentle touches and pretended affection.  _

_ She feels the heat of his body, and she  _ reacts.

North wakes up with a gasp, shoving the body off of her. Scrambling away from him, she abruptly loses ground on the bed. She tumbles, head-over-heels, and slams against the hardwood floor of Carl’s house. The cry rips free of her throat. The hot tears spill out of her eyes in a second, and she wheezes to catch her breath.

In the bed, two faces peer back at her. Simon blinks the sleep out of his eyes, confusion clear across his face. However, Markus shifts and throws himself over Simon. He glances down at her and knits his brow together. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m…” The rest of the apology chokes on her tongue, and she swallows hard. Is she?  _ Sorry?  _ None of them ever set any boundaries. Instead, they acted as a unit from the very start. The only thing they  _ briefly  _ discussed was jealousy… And it was always handled with kisses from Markus and reassuring words.

If she explains what happens, they’ll both  _ know.  _ She wanted to put off a different image here. The story she tells is of strangling someone and running away. It colors her aggressive, mean, blood-thirsty. To tell the truth, to tell the  _ entire  _ truth, it makes her a scared girl who stayed in a bad situation for too long. It’s not something respectable… It’s something people will look down at.

So, she does what she needs to. She closes yet another chapter of her life by pushing to her feet and sprinting away, leaving the shocked faces of her lovers in the bed. Is it really different when the people in your bed have names and stories? Is it different than the nameless, blurred millions she hooked up with before, albeit unwillingly?

North crashes into Carl’s bathroom and locks the door behind her, frantically looking around.  _ Bingo.  _ It’s a second story window, so the fall may be devastating… But there’s a ledge she can jump off. She’ll be able to land safely on the ground and still make it.

Before she makes her way to the window, someone’s knuckles rap against the wood. It’s more of a tap than a solid knock. Markus’s voice gently drifts through the door. “North…? Can I come in?”

Burying her palms against her mouth, she tries to prevent the scream from shaking out. The cool tiles rub against her bare legs, the cold seeping through her skin and straight into her casing. She glances down at what she still wears, and North trembles at the ever familiar sight.

At least, she tries to reassure herself, it’s not the Eden Club bikini get-up. It’s a mismatched set, her panties red and the shirt belonging to Simon. 

She pulls at the collar, hating the scent of the person she once adored. How the hell does North even begin to explain this? Markus and Simon need someone who can play around in the bedroom. They need someone who can satisfy their needs, and she can’t fucking do that! When she finds the courage to explain, there’s no way they’ll stay together. Markus and Simon will lock hands with one another and start sprinting off into the sunset…

And she’ll stand alone and burn. 

Ripping open the cupboard beneath the sink, she sifts through the pile. Once upon a time, she and Simon decided to hide extra clothing here. They weren’t sure whether Markus would be okay with them placing clothing in Carl’s dresser or closet. Instead of keeping the bed, they pawned it off to buy a new one. Markus toes the line between wanting  _ nothing  _ to do with Carl’s things and gathering it all to his chest to hoard it all for ages to come.

Her skin crawls at the denim scratching up against her legs. She slips the jeans on, and they hug her just right. These ones must be hers. Discarding Simon’s shirt, she replaces it with one of her old hoodies. It’s ratty and has holes exposing her skin when she moves slightly. But… It’s  _ hers. _

The doorknob jiggles slightly, but the lock holds steady. “North, please. I just want to talk.”

And that’s all Markus ever does. He opens his mouth, and she can’t help but fall deeper in love. She wanted to leave the world in ruins, to expose the filthy way the humans are beneath their painted smiles. He erased all those thoughts with his practiced movements. As he tore his way into a new world, he left behind relatively little tombstones and returned from hell still bearing an impossible amount of belief. He never once lost his hope, not entirely.

And she runs on empty.

He never listened to her ideas anyway. It was always Josh. It was always Simon. Maybe she was only kept around for the pretty face she has.

Maybe she was only kept around for the experience she had since rA9 knows Simon and Markus never did more than hold hands.

North slides open the window, praying the hinges don’t squeak. She props herself between the sink and the wall before maneuvering her way through the window. While she  _ usually  _ stomps around and makes a ruckus, she always could be graceful.  _ Choosing  _ to be stealthy was another story. 

“I need to know you’re okay… If you don’t respond, I’ll unlock the door. I can’t…” He helplessly trails off, unsure how to crack her shell. She doesn’t want to be a mystery to be cracked. She doesn’t want to be  _ some adventure. _

When Markus finally gets into the bathroom, she’s long gone.

\---

Somehow, all of their morning routines collided at some point. They made a makeshift family in their small apartment, no matter how fucking  _ sappy  _ it sounds. Chloe always gets ready first and creates some kind of breakfast. Next, Josh and North emerge from the bedrooms and wolf it down. 

Today, she figures she can mix things up. After all, North can feel the nervous energy scrambling up and down her limbs. When the toast started smoking, though, she figured she wasn’t the  _ best  _ at human tasks. 

It’s fine, though. They don’t have well-developed taste buds, and Josh can fucking choke on the burnt toast. 

“Have you ever had sex?” North asks as she desperately tries to scramble eggs. 

Josh inhales sharply and starts choking. Wow, what a dream come true. It takes a few seconds for him to snort the thirium-infused orange juice on the table. She can feel his eyes focusing on her back. “I can’t believe this breakfast is a lie. You just wanted to trap us into an uncomfortable conversation.”

“Bingo.” She slowly scraps the slightly…  _ Wet  _ eggs onto the three plates set out. 

Chloe calmly sips her orange juice and raises an eyebrow. When she sets the glass on the table, a small smile hints at her expression. “I gladly take awkward conversation in exchange for food.”

“It looks disgusting,” comments Josh. He pokes at the eggs with his fork, and North scowls at him. She spins the plate away and offers it to Chloe. The blonde doesn’t hesitate before scraping his food onto her pile. 

Instead of sitting in the heavily damaged chair, North clambers onto the counter near the stove. She makes a face at both of them before clearing her throat again. “So… Am I in a room with a bunch of fucking  _ virgins  _ or…?”

“Is there a  _ reason  _ we’re discussing this?” Josh interrupts before North can continue on her quiet rampage. He eyes her, and she scowls and pulls her hoodie around her tighter. Neither of them says anything about how she returned in the middle of the night. Neither of them says she decided to stay the night at the Manfred Manor.

Finally, she groans. “Look, don’t make this a  _ fucking  _ therapy session. I don’t need someone to keep an eye out for me. I just want to know whether or not you two have screwed someone.”

“What’s it like?” Chloe asks, blinking innocently. She steers the conversation effortlessly and silently implores for something North can’t explain. “Being in love.”

“Being in love is  _ nothing  _ like sex-”

“You love Markus and Simon though,” interrupts Josh. “So explain love. Not sex.”

North stares at the two of them, eyes skipping between them. Neither show a sign of interacting with each other. It’s, like, they conjured this plan out of thin air. They never anticipated to bully her into giving an answer she can’t. 

So, she deflects and throws up her walls. “I don’t know. Explain Connor, Chloe. I’ve seen you eye-fucking him.”

“I like the way he makes me feel. Like a fairy tale.” A tiny blush enters her cheeks, and her eyes shine with some kind of whimsical fantasy North’s never had. She runs a hand through her hair and bites on her bottom lip. “Like… I’m a princess to him, and he’s my knight in shining armor. I’m not helpless around him.”

“It sounds like you  _ rely  _ on him to protect you.” Wrinkling her nose, North looks away from Chloe.

Clearing her throat, the blonde leans forward and gently sets her hand on her thigh. “Hey. No. That’s not how it works. He makes me feel safe, but I feel safe by myself. It just gives me something… Something  _ else.  _ He makes my heart flutter, and I… I really like him.”

“There’s a difference,” notes Josh, “between loving someone and  _ needing  _ someone.”

“Like you would fucking know.” North snorts and swings herself off the table. She doesn’t want to be here around the saps. Before she leaves, she’ll need to change out of the grubby clothing she stole from the Manfred Manor. In the end, she’ll need to look a lot more presentable. 

Before she can escape the room, Josh gets to his feet and clears his throat. “North! That’s not  _ fair.” _

“What?” She spins on her heel.

He makes a face at her, and she quickly makes a face back. They’ve gotten a lot better at their nonverbal arguments. After all, usually Simon or Markus insists on breaking them up. “You can ask us a really weird,  _ uncomfortable  _ question to start off our day, but we can’t ask you something?”

“It’s a  _ valid  _ question!” North splutters. They’re, like,  _ practically  _ teenagers. Most of them have only been alive for a few months anyway. So, naturally, they should be able to talk about sex!

Josh lifts an eyebrow. “I’m asexual.”

_ “Fuck,  _ what?” Now, North can’t help feeling like shit. When did that even happen? She runs a hand through her hair frantically, sending the stray strands wayward. “That’s a shitty question then, wow.”

“It’s fine. It’s not exactly how I imagined coming out to you, but at the same time, this is one of the better scenarios I could’ve pictured.” He shrugs. His eyes drift to Chloe, who smiles brightly at him. “But anyway, maybe you need to figure out what sex means to you because it’s  _ obviously  _ not love for you.”

“I don’t want a therapist!” shouts North over her shoulder as she retreats to her room. A smile starts to pull at her face though. God, when did Josh get so wise? Maybe when he stopped sucking humans’ dicks to try and get freedom?

\---

Night falls before she works up her courage to knock on Markus’s office door. Who would’ve thought they’d end up working in these tiny fucking cubicles? Leading a revolution ends up with a nine-to-five job? North still isn’t sure she appreciates  _ these  _ changes, but what else could she have done?

rA9, she can’t believe she’s going in to discuss  _ business  _ with the three of them. Josh just contacted her to say they’re all waiting in the office for their weekly meeting, but for fuck’s sake, she doesn’t want to do that. They obviously expected that because she can hear their voices drift through the door. They didn’t even  _ wait  _ for her to make her report before they started.

It’s fine. North likes a good, dramatic entrance.

Kicking open the door, she storms into the office and slaps a sheet of paper down on Markus’s desk. She makes eye contact and dares him to say something. All the leader does is wait patiently for her to speak first. 

Turning on her heel, she turns to leave the room. Hesitating in the doorway, she calls over her shoulder. “Legally, I have to bring it to your attention. So there you go, that’s my  _ grand  _ contribution to fucking society.”

“North-”

“You were the one who said I was too aggressive to lead! So… Fuck you!” she singsongs the last bit, flipping up her middle fingers as she struts backward. She knows one of them will come after her to try and persuade her off this ledge she put herself on.

Sure enough, Simon chases her down. “Wait! North!”

“I can’t hear you over the sound of Markus’s tongue down your throat!” she calls lazily. North doesn’t care he catches up to her, and she averts her gaze when he swings in front of her. He blocks the door to the elevator and desperately searches her face.

Finally, he cracks a small smile. “I mean, you’d have to wait for the elevator anyway, and I’m pretty sure it’s down on level negative forty.”

“Sub-forty,” North corrects with a roll of her eyes.

The blond nods a few times before laughing lightly. “See? You can’t be  _ that  _ upset you’re still going to correct me. I… I don’t know what happened this morning, or last night, or whatever. I just want to apologize and-”

“I  _ think  _ we should lay down ground rules.” Oh, rA9, North wants to puke the second the words come out of her mouth. Is this what a conversation feels like? She’d rather go out and start punching things. Obviously, she can’t start taking swings at Simon though. 

He nods frantically. “Of course! I… We probably should have discussed triggers before. I think we just got carried away with the happiness of winning the war before it really,  _ truly  _ began.”

“Don’t… Don’t say  _ ‘triggers’  _ or shit. I don’t want to feel like a clinical case. I don’t want to feel like you just  _ looked up  _ symptoms on Google and threw together some sappy conversation. I… I’m not every traumatized Traci there is. I’m fucking  _ North.”  _ The words fill her with a frantic sort of buzz, and she takes a deep breath. It hitches in her throat.

Simon cautiously tries to place a hand on her shoulder before hesitating. She rolls her eyes and slaps it down there. She doesn’t want him to treat her like some  _ fragile  _ doll. She… Doesn’t really know what she wants.

“I don’t know what happened this morning. But I don’t want you to feel like that again.” He smiles awkwardly before laughing to himself. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Floyd Mills came by to visit me today. I left his fucking business plan on Markus’s desk.” She steers the conversation away from what she needs and how they need to treat her. North is  _ sure  _ they’ll broach on it soon enough. She doesn’t know when she’ll sleep in the same bed as them again. At the very least, though, North can get past the fucking idea of Floyd Mills. 

His eyes go wide, but before he can even  _ open  _ his mouth, she clears her throat. “He can go to hell.  _ I  _ can go to hell before I deal with him again. There’s a lot of fucking history there, and it took  _ five minutes  _ for him to tear down everything I worked for. So, any Tracis are hereby referred to literally  _ anyone else,  _ and Floyd Mills can suck my dick-  _ Oh! Wait!  _ I don’t have one.”

“Consider it done.” Simon waits a few seconds before smiling hesitantly. “You good?”

North shakes her head before shrugging. “Not yet. But I will be.”


End file.
